Susan Brooks, Editor in Chief at www.literarywanderlust.com

Character Development

You answered all the why questions from last time about why you want to write a novel, and are still here. Good for you!

So, let’s press on.

Readers generally learn four things from books.

Who, what, why and why not.

Who = the protagonist

What = the plot

Why = the goals and motivation of the characters

Why Not = the conflict

Today let’s talk about the who.

The who part is your protagonist or main character. You probably have a good idea of who your protagonist is or so you think. But do you know enough? Do you know your characters past? Do you know their deepest desire? How does this character shape your plot?

Should you really know who your main character is before you start writing?

Yes.

Seriously.

It can be very helpful to create a bio for your protagonist. Actually, I recommend that you create one for each character in your novel because you may discover character traits that you can use to add interest and tension to your story.

A character biography is everything about everything about your character, and if you create a biography, you can reference it later to make sure your character stays true to themselves. The bio may contain information not important now, but may be very important later. The biography will also help you understand your character so you can convey that to your reader.

If your character seems vague, it’s because you don’t know who they are. If your reader finds your character vague, they will close the book. Not good.

For each character, consider creating a bio that includes all or some of the below.

Name:

Role (what role do they play in your story):

Age:

Income:

Birthplace:

Marital Status:

Children and their ages:

General appearance:

Props (cane, pipe etc):

Do they use specific phrases:

What does their voice sound like:

Living arrangements:

Occupation and employment information:

Degree of skill at occupation:

Character’s feelings about occupation:

Family background:

What do they want:

Why do they want it:

Flaws:

Vulnerabilities:

Attitude:

Arc (how does this character evolve from the beginning of the book to the end):

Biggest fear:

Likes:

Dislikes:

What secret is in their past:

Relationships:

Believes in god/religion etc:

The primary reason to create a character bio is so that you will know who they are in detail, and also so your characters will become fully fleshed-out people instead of boring cliché characters.

Creating the bio will also establish why this character is in this story. If they are throw-away characters, should they be in the plot? Maybe not.

Each character should be multi-dimensional, distinctive individuals with their own voice, goals, motivations, conflicts, attitudes, indiosyncrasies, vulnerabilities, and personalities, etc.

There are tons of character biography examples on the Internet, so if you need to expand this questionnaire, you are sure to find more questions.

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